The Deluxe Station Wagon you see here still carries that story. Its body remains completely original, an extraordinary survivor of Ford’s vision of self-sufficiency. Every panel of wood, shaped in Iron Mountain nearly a century ago, reminds us of an era when one man’s determination to control every detail reshaped the way the world built cars
Company History
Henry Ford believed efficiency meant more than just building cars quickly. To him, true efficiency came from controlling every step of production, from the raw materials in the earth to the finished vehicle rolling off the line. Determined to achieve this, Ford didn’t stop at owning factories; he bought forests, mines, railroads, and even ships to feed his vast industrial machine.
In northern Michigan, in the small town of Iron Mountain, Ford owned thousands of acres of dense forest. By the mid-1930s, he had transformed the area into a massive industrial hub, complete with a state-of-the-art plant designed to turn raw timber into automobile parts. Towering stacks of hardwood rolled in from Ford’s forests, and teams of skilled craftsmen went to work, cutting, shaping, and assembling the wood into some of the most distinctive automobiles of the era: the wooden-bodied station wagons.
These vehicles represented the perfect marriage of craftsmanship and mass production. Workers at Iron Mountain didn’t just carve out a few parts; they built and fully assembled entire wagon bodies, complete with doors, panels, and intricate details. Once completed, the bodies traveled south by rail to Ford’s famous Rouge Factory in Detroit. There, workers mounted them onto finished chassis, creating the elegant “woody” station wagons that immediately stood apart from anything else on the road.
In 1935, the station wagon wasn’t just another model, it was the pinnacle of Ford luxury. Priced higher than any other vehicle in Ford’s lineup, the wagon attracted families, resorts, and even businesses who valued its style, versatility, and craftsmanship. Its wooden body gave it both charm and prestige, setting it apart in an age when steel had become the norm.
